Month: April 2017

This week’s Wordbound prompt was: “She turned away and walked back toward the house.” I continued the short story I’ve been working on for the last couple of weeks.

An Excerpt

“So, Aiden,” Izzie said, “We heard you went to see Jenna a couple days before she disappeared.”

“Yeah, I did,” he said.

“And you had a fight?” Caleb asked.

“Yeah, we did,” Aiden said.

“And you never thought to mention this to the police?” Izzie said.

“So they could make me a suspect?” Aiden said, “That’s why you’re here, isn’t it? You think I had something to do with whatever happened to her?”

“Maybe,” Izzie said, “Did you?”

“No,” he answered, “Absolutely not.”

“So what were you fighting about?” Caleb asked.

“I was trying to warn her,” he said.

“Warn her about what?” Izzie asked.

“This woman I know told me she saw Jenna with her new boyfriend and she recognized him. She said he was dangerous. I tried to tell Jenna, but she didn’t want to hear it,” Aiden explained.

“Do you know who this new boyfriend is?” Izzie asked.

“No,” Aiden said, “I never saw him.”

“And how do we know that’s what really happened?” Caleb said, “Maybe you were jealous of this new boyfriend. Maybe that’s why you were fighting.”

“Look,” Aiden said, “I went there to warn Jenna and she ignored me. She turned away and walked back toward the house. That was the last time I saw her.”

Writing Goal Updates

I did a bit more writing this week than I have been. I did a lot of outlining, and actually worked on the next chapter of my project. I’ve been feeling more motivated in general, so next week should be a good writing week.

Izzie and Caleb met up again the next morning at a diner. They were waiting for their food when Caleb suddenly grabbed Izzie’s hand.

“What are you doing?” Izzie said, as he grabbed her hand.

“Please,” he said, “My ex just walked in. Play along?”

Izzie rolled her eyes, but clasped their hands together on the table. She glanced in the direction Caleb was looking, and saw that the woman he was watching was looking right back at them. She looked worried.

Writing Goal Updates

I didn’t do much writing this week, but I did a bit of outlining and made a little progress.

This week’s Wordbound prompt was: Include something that must be whispered. I decided to start another short story with this prompt.

An Excerpt

“You said Jenna looked scared when she was in your office,” Izzie said, “I think we should start there. Whatever happened to her, it could be related. You’re sure she didn’t say anything? Anything that could tell us why she was so scared?”

“No,” Caleb said, “She ran out of there before telling me anything.”

“Her mother had no idea what could have happened to her,” Izzie said, “She didn’t know if she had a boyfriend. She didn’t know the names of her friends. It was like she didn’t know her at all.”

“Someone had to,” he said, “We’ll figure it out.”

“We need to find out what happened to her and fast,” Izzie said, “We don’t know if she was targeted and this was a one time thing, or if the person responsible for her disappearance could be going after someone else.”

“What?” Caleb said, “You think we have a serial killer on our hands?”

“We don’t know she’s dead,” Izzie whispered, “And until we know the truth, no one is going to feel safe in this town.”

“Why are you whispering?” Caleb said.

“Because someone’s following us,” Izzie answered.

Writing Goal Updates

I haven’t gotten much writing done so far, but the week’s not over yet. I did some outlining and I started working on a new chapter, so I’m moving forward. I’ve definitely been feeling more motivated to write over the last couple of days, so hopefully I can make some real progress this week.

This week’s Wordbound prompt was: Feature a couple of your writing friends! How do you inspire each other?

For me, my writing has always been an extremely private thing, so I haven’t really found any writing friends. Most of my friends either don’t know that I write, aren’t writers themselves, or live far away. But after three months of sharing just small snippets of things I’ve written in these blog posts, I’m feeling a lot better about sharing my writing. I’m planning on starting to share more outside of this blog someday soon. I’m going to have to get used to it if I ever want to actually publish something I’ve written.

Writing Goal Updates

I wrote more this week than I have in the last couple weeks, working on a short story and finishing a chapter. I didn’t write as much as I wanted to, but it’s a step in the right direction. I also officially made the decision to focus solely on one story at a time. I have a lot of ideas for things I want to write, and bouncing between them wasn’t getting me anywhere, so I thought narrowing it down to just a few to focus on would help, and it did a bit, but I’ve realized that I need to just focus on one at a time and actually finish it before moving on. This is a problem for me in general, not just in my writing. I’ll make a to do list and start one thing, but move on to something else before finishing it, and then at the end of the day I’m stuck with several half-finished tasks. I think I’m about halfway done with the first draft of the project I’ve chosen, so hopefully staying focused on this one thing will help me finish it in a reasonable amount of time.

This week’s Wordbound prompt was: A character opens someone else’s desk drawer. What do they find?

This is another part of the short story I’ve been writing this month.

An Excerpt

“This is definitely illegal,” Becca said as Vanessa picked the lock to Professor Atwater’s office.

Andy shushed her.

“It’s fine,” Vanessa said, “Besides for all we know, the professor’s in on it.”

“What if he isn’t?” Becca said.

Andy shushed her again. Vanessa pushed the door open. Andy and Vanessa walked inside. Becca hesitated outside the office, but eventually followed them inside. Right away she saw the box with the envelopes containing the next clue on top of his desk, but that’s not what Andy and Vanessa were looking at. Andy was looking through a bookshelf and Vanessa was pulling open desk drawers.

“What are you doing?” Becca said.

“Snooping,” Andy answered.

“Are you seriously telling me you’ve never been curious about what professor’s keep hidden in their offices?” Vanessa asked.

“Yes,” Becca said, “But that doesn’t mean you should be doing that.”

“If we weren’t snooping,” Vanessa said, “Then we wouldn’t know that Professor Atwater has a half eaten blueberry pie in his second desk drawer.”

“Really?” Andy said, hurrying over to take a look.

“Can we please just get the envelope and get out of here?” Becca said.

“Can we take the pie with us?” Andy said, “It looks delicious.”

Writing Goal Updates

This wasn’t a good writing week again, but I think next week will be. I have some ideas that I’m really excited about for projects I’ve already started and for things I want to start after them. I’m hoping these ideas will get me writing more again.